Hi everyone, I am new here. My acupuncturist has steered me to Dr. D'Adamo. She has been trying for some time now and I was resistant to modifying my diet - in my mind, I eat healthfully and eat whole foods. I was very resistant to giving up whole grain breads, pasta, bulgar wheat, etc. BUT after the winter I just had - I'm ready to commit.

My blood test kit is en route, DH is sure I'm an O but I'm not making assumptions until testing. However I read the Hunter profile and except for the lean body (how I wish) it sounds like my life story. I am not energetic like a Hunter though - I'm very sluggish. RA is only one layer of my inflammatory issues.

Anyway - all of that said, it would encourage me to read of any success in reducing pain and inflammation from any fellow RA sufferers here. I look forward to meeting you all!

After removing grains from your diet you may find your RA symptoms lessening quit a bit. And after a while of being on the right diet you may just find yourself looking like a lean Hunter after all (if a Hunter is what you end up being). Many of us have had fantastic results on this diet.

Welcome to the forums!

ISTJ, BTD since 5/05. Battling chronic Lyme disease since ~1985.

"Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial..." I Corinthians 6:12

I used to wake up sore and stiff every morning, and had lots of lower back pain. It never reached the point of a diagnosis, but RA may be one of the many things this diet has helped me steer clear of. My brother (a B) was diagnosed with juvenile RA, then twenty years later was finally diagnosed with celiac disease and hasn't had an ache since giving up wheat and gluten. For my sister (an O), it was fibromyalgia, and her aches are gone now as well.

It's so very worth it! There's lots of yummy beneficial foods, it really doesn't feel like a "diet" once you make the initial adjustments.

Thank you everyone! I made a side trip to the health food store and stocked up on a few things - right now, getting the wheat out is Agenda Number 1. I understand the Ezekial sprouted products are OK, so I purchased their bread and English muffins, plus a brown rice wheat/gluten free wrap! And some WF/GF snack bars - looks like I'll be a regular at the health food store.

While chatting with the proprietor she told me many people have had health improvements giving up wheat, and she was familiar with BTD too. All these years we've been conditioned to believe it was so good for us.

I don't know ANYBODY who, upon really and truly giving up wheat for a while, didn't have good results. I know people who have gone back go it, but when they first quit, they have all said they felt better.

ISTJ, BTD since 5/05. Battling chronic Lyme disease since ~1985.

"Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial..." I Corinthians 6:12

Now that I think back, it was the achy joints that convinced me to try wheat free in the first place. I read two books that recommended it (ER4YT and a book by Dr. Jeffrey Bland), finally tried it, and have never looked back.

Those tortillas are good, but may work best if you heat them on a skillet with some compliant oil or ghee to soften them up.

The hunter I live with had kidney stones, gout, and eczema. She started the diet (BTD first and then GTD) again four months ago. Gout and eczemz is nearly clearly up, she'd have to get a blood test to know for sure about the kidney stones, and she's lost over 20 lbs!

She's been following the GTD diet very strickly and trying to eat veggies instead of grains.

She feels fantastic and is taking dancing classes and going for two - two mile walks a day (because she finally has enough energy and no pain).

One of the biggest symptoms I have when I accidentally have wheat is joint pain. I get celiac-like symptoms, too, but sometimes am luckily asymptomatic, but always, always get the joint pain. It was bad enough at one point (when I didn't realize about the wheat) that I went to the doctor and said, "I think I have rheumatoid arthritis".

I could barely walk some days. And this was before I turned 30, even! I was like "Oh my god, if it's this bad now, how is it going to be when I'm elderly?"

{{hugs}} MissPudding thank you for writing back - I'm so hopeful about this plan. So far so good, but today I had rye bread which I thought was safe and WHAMO the knuckles swelled up. No more bread other than Ezekiel!

Some of us may find that we don't notice big changes on the diet, but if we go off, we see how we react! WuHuu! I am avoiding wheat as I don't want to be sluggish for 2 days!I have also noticed that heavier avoids(protein, starches, fats)bother me more than lighter ones(veggies & fruits). Ribbit's husband & I had had an interesting story when we ate non-compliant beans at about the same time! Wow!!Any other comments, you all??